THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ
Author:
Lyman Frank Baum
First edition:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900
Main illustrators:
Denslow Durual
In short:
A cyclone takes Dorothy and her dog Toto to the Wonderful Land of Oz. In order to get back to Kansas with Aunt Em, she must find the Wonderful Wizard, who lives in the Emerald City. On her way to this fantastic place, she meets three friends who also wish to ask a favour to Oz: the Scarecrow, who dreams of getting some brains in his stuffed head; the Tin Woodman, who longs for a heart to feel; and the Cowardly Lion, who would like to be braver. The five of them go through many adventures before reaching the Emerald City and they meet curious characters, some good some bad... the Munchkins, the Quadlings, the Queen of the Field Mice, the Winged Monkeys, the inhabitants of the Dainty China Country, Glinda the Good Witch, but also the Wicked Witch of the West who tries to enslave Dorothy and steal her silver shoes!
Selection of edition:
Le Magicien d'Oz, illustrated by William Wallace Denslow, Gallimard, 1993.
More about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
The book was very successful from the very beginning. Since its publication, the book has become America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale. Baum even set some other tales in the same land of Oz, such as The marvelous Land of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Lost Princess of Oz or Glinda of Oz, his last book posthumously published in 1920.
And it has been adapted to the screen many times, being Victor Fleming's film musical of 1939 the most celebrated one, with Judy Garland starring Dorothy and saying the famous closing sentence "There's no place like home!".
The Oz Filmography is really long, and even Lyman Frank Baum himself made some Oz films before 1939.